Jack McGee
"Good idea. Call the cops. I`m dying to hear you explain that." —Jack McGee (to Dr. Banner and Dr. Marks in the Hulk series pilot, while gesturing at the destroyed hyperbaric chamber) Jack McGee is a character in the TV series, "The Incredible Hulk" (1978–1982). He was played by Jack Colvin. Biography Reporter Jack McGee first makes his appearance in The Incredible Hulk TV series pilot movie. He first wanted to interview Dr. David Banner, for the tabloid newspaper The National Register, about the research the scientist was conducting on "tapping into the hidden strength that all people have." McGee suspects a connection between the first appearance of the creature and Banner's research, and begins to stalk the Culver Institute laboratory where Banner and Elaina Marks are trying to reverse David's gamma irradiation. Paradoxically, it is McGee's very interference which causes the laboratory explosion which kills Elaina, and forces David to go on the run. McGee, on the other hand, assumes it was the Hulk which was responsible for the deaths of both scientists when he writes his article with the headline "Incredible Hulk Kills 2", and shows it to the mourners at David and Elaina's funeral. He would later focus his energy on catching and exposing the rampaging, green monster. He follows the Hulk wherever the creature is spotted, although it is not until the season three episode "Mystery Man" that he finally learns that the Hulk metamorphoses from a man. On several occasions, he tries to stun the Hulk with a tranquilizer gun, but his attempts always go wrong. McGee always struggles to wrangle interviews, because people think he is crazy for believing in the Hulk, and his newspaper has such a bad reputation for questionable, "tabloid" journalism. Often the people whom the Hulk has helped or saved protect Banner by refusing to give McGee or the authorities any evidence. As the series goes, McGee's character is further developed, as the audience begins to sympathize with his constant failures. Over time, McGee learns to sympathize with the creature, after witnessing Banner (John Doe) metamorphose into the Hulk ("Mystery Man") and sees that the Hulk's basic instinct is to save and protect life - frequently McGee himself is saved by the Hulk when his relentless pursuit of the creature puts him in situations of mortal danger. Since then, McGee has made his motivations very clear, in the sense that he will not permit the murder of the creature. For example in the episode "Bring Me the Head of the Hulk", McGee aims to stop a mercenary from killing the Hulk. McGee is proven to have grown from his role, as merely an antagionistic nosy reporter in the "Pilot", into three-dimensional character in the episode "Proof Positive". That episode solely focuses on McGee and his quest to find the Hulk (and is the only episode not containing Bill Bixby). Appearances Jack McGee appears in 56 of the 82 episodes of the series. His final appearance is in the television movie The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), in which at the end, it is implied that he will begin searching for Thor, as well as the Hulk. ''The Incredible Hulk'' (2008) film An homage was made in the film The Incredible Hulk, in which a new character named Jack McGee is a Culver University student and reporter for the school paper. He and his friend Jim Wilson (a nod to the Hulk comic book character of the same name) were interviewed as eyewitnesses by a TV news reporter. Trivia Jack McGee's character is often compared to Lt. Philip Gerard from the 1963–67 series The Fugitive. He also draws inspiration from Inspector Javert of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. In the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, the character is alluded to when FBI Agent Baer, discussing past efforts to find the legendary arch-criminal Keyser Soze, mentions a colleague at DOJ who has a special interest in Soze, leading other colleagues to "equate him to that reporter on The Incredible Hulk". Category:Characters Category:2008 Appearance